ArticlePloS one2026
When revealed after the fact, selfish intentions undermine prosocial actions in 5-year-olds.
Article in PloS one, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 1 paper.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Early in ontogeny, children show a preference for prosocial others and for those with helpful intentions. Here, we investigate how children reason about prosocial actions when a selfish intention is revealed only after a prosocial behavior has benefitted them. 5-year-old children (N = 48) played a game with a puppet who acted prosocially by letting the child take a turn in a game. After the game, the puppet revealed either a selfish intention of getting a cookie for letting the child play (Undermining condition) or a prosocial intention of wanting the child to have fun (Prosocial condition). When given a chance to reciprocate a prosocial act, children shared less when the puppet had an Undermining versus a Prosocial intention. Children did not show any condition differences in their explicit social evaluations of the puppet, however. Our results indicate that an agent's initially hidden selfish intention, revealed only after a prosocial action, negatively impacts a child's willingness to later reciprocate with that agent.
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